CITY SLEUTH: A LOCATIVE MOBILE GAME
Let's Tell a Story with Location and Place as the Main Controls
In a nutshell, City Sleuth is a scavenger hunt mobile game prototype that was designed with the purpose of telling a story to users via interaction with their surroundings. In this game, the player takes the role of a private investigator tasked with finding the culprit of a fictional crime. The player must travel to a designated location to begin the game, followed by a series of additional locations in which a testimony, piece of evidence, or additional subject could be found until ultimately, the player must decide who is the correct culprit.
The problem:
How can we create an immersive mobile experience utilizing the player's GPS data alongside their surroundings in a way that generates replay value?
My Role:
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UI/UX Designer - Mobile
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User Researcher
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Testing Coordinator
The Team:
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Two UX Designers
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Front End Engineer
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Product Lead
Tools Used:
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Adobe Creative Suite
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iOS Emulator
My Contributions:
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Mobile Interface Design
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Usability Testing
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Cross-Collaboration
The Process:
​Empathize
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Analysis of existing games
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Interviews with persona groups
Specify
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Prioritize features and workflows
​Ideate
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Sketches
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Workflow Maps
Bring to Life​
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Prototype
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Basic iOS app
​Verify​
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Usability testing
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Direct interview with test participant
Outcome:
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A solid concept for a location-based mobile game
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Addresses the needs of tourists and commuters
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Can be built on at a later time
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INSPIRATION AND PURPOSE
During my study abroad in Copenhagen in early 10`7, one of my courses was centered around "locative media," defined as digital media applied to real places and spurring interactions with the world around the user. The concept was inspired by a Swedish app called Tidsmaskinen ("The Time Machine") which guides the user to various nearby waypoints such as statues and buildings via arrows and haptic vibration. Upon reaching the waypoint, the app provides the user with text and audio on some of its history, as well as images related to it. Another example of such media is Pokemon GO, with its PokeStops and Gyms serving as points of interest for interaction.
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Our goal with this project was to create a platform that can tell a story via a user's interaction with the surrounding environment.
Building on a smaller project created with Tidsmaskinen in which the user follows the story of a sailor's walk through a harbor, which consisted of simply being guided to a spot and listening to an audio recording, we decided that interactions should be more dynamic than a simple audio recording or wall of text to read. We figured that by adding gamification to the experience, we could encourage interaction better than simply rewarding the user with information.
OUR PERSONAS
Local:
LARS
Lars grew up in a city about an hour from Copenhagen and has traveled there at many points in his life before properly moving to Copenhagen for university. He has since lived there through his undergraduate study and is currently partway through a Master's Degree in Software Development at the IT University of Copenhagen. He likes to learn more about places to go in his city, but his busy schedule doesn't often give him the chance. He also wants to find ways to make his commute more interesting and fun.
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Age: 26
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Hometown: Roskilde, Denmark
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Motivations: social, curiosity, growth, fitness
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Personality: extrovert, spontaneous, friendly, active
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Goals:
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Have fun on his walking commutes
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Learn more about his city in his spare time
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Get a workout from walking around new places
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Frustrations:
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Doesn't have a lot of time to wait around on his commutes
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Wants to know about some other spots in the city that he doesn't usually frequent
Culture/History Buff: PAULA
Paula is studying History at the University of Copenhagen on a one-year exchange. She is curious about the history behind the city and wants to find out more about it. However, after being disappointed once with the underwhelming "Little Mermaid" statue, she doesn't want to try the more tourist-associated sites and wants to find things out more organically.
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Age: 20
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Hometown: Porto, Portugal
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Motivations: curiosity, learning, growth
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Personality: introvert, frugal, planner, active
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Goals:
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Learn facts about the city such as layout and history
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Find snippets and fun facts about the city's history
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Frustrations:
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Does not want to rely on large monuments and attractions
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Unsure how to find smaller nuggets of information
Casual Tourist:
MIYUKI
Miyuki is visiting Copenhagen with her husband, Ken. They are traveling across Europe and are spending a few days in Copenhagen. Miyuki wants to enjoy her time in the city as much as possible, so she wants to gamify her travels through the city in addition to enjoying more tourist-oriented spots. She also wants to eventually travel back to this city on a more dedicated vacation, so learning about spots to go back to at a later time would also help her. She also enjoys reading novels about mysteries and historical fiction.
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Age: 32
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Hometown: Sapporo, Japan
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Motivations: wonder, knowledge, hope, financial stability
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Personality: spontaneous, extrovert, calm, friendly
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Goals:
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Learn spots to go to in the city
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Have fun traveling through the city
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Learn about the local color
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Frustrations:
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Does not want to go to more time-wasting or expensive areas
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Wants to find time to fit in a good mystery story in her travels as well
CREATING A LOCATIVE GAME
One of our primary concerns when designing this game was how best to guide the user. Early on, we decided to utilize the user's GPS location as our main controller for this game, we sought out locations on foot and scouting areas for our prototype to take place, and we decided on a group of candidate points of interest. Mechanically speaking, we decided that the game should be similar to existing pieces of media by using physical points of interest to guide the user through the game. However, rather than have any explicit guides such as arrows or points on a map to reach, we decided that for our first iteration, we would guide the user via audio clips collected at each point of interest, mentioning street names and spots that would be visible from where the clip would be obtained.
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Additionally, we did not want the game to be linear, nor did we want it to simply be a matter of going to a location, standing there for a few minutes, and advancing the plot. As a result, we decided to include locations that serve as possible dead ends or red herrings but could be alluded to in the recordings of testimony from the growing list of subjects the player finds. We also decided to add in a more dynamic set of interactions in which the user would have to answer questions about things present in the locations, such as what is mounted on the wall behind the counter of a coffee shop.
Above: the map of our game's path, starting from the courthouse, going to the victim's place of work, followed by a bar(or a dead end at the museum), a convenience store, and finally the apartment of the victim, Line.
Below: the chart of the user's workflow through the app, including the usage of an external app to better gather evidence for the culprit
FINDING SHORTCOMINGS THROUGH TESTING
Aside from defining workflow and assisting with the narrative of the game, one of my primary roles was coordinating our usability testing, taking note of our test users' experience with the prototype, and other notable aspects. To conduct testing, we met with our testers near the target location and provided them with a phone with the prototype app. We would then monitor the phone screen and follow the users as they proceeded to each point of interest, answering any questions that might come up.
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One of the primary faults in our prototype was that the points of interest in our scenario were spaced too far apart. This led to frustration from the test users and the questioning of whether or not they were headed in the right direction. Frustration was especially prevalent in the case of our dead-end sites, with one tester stating "If I were actually playing this, I would have just quit."
Another area of concern came from the deeper interaction we had intended with the surroundings of points of interest. During one of our testing sessions, the owner of a coffee shop came out and asked us what we were doing since some of us were walking in, looking around, and leaving. While he stated he didn't have a problem with it after we explained the purpose, even saying it might be good for business, the possibility of business owners being less receptive to the idea still remains.
TAKEAWAYS
From our testing, we came away with several significant jobs that could be done to improve the overall experience of this concept, both regarding the experience itself and the process for future iterations (had we had more time to work on this).
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First, treat local business owners as stakeholders.
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Their businesses would be affected by the presence of individuals playing this game, so researching their openness to this would be worth doing first.​
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Second, ensure points of interest are close together and that hints are not subtle.
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This ensures an overall straightforward experience and minimizes frustration​
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Potential A/B testing can be done to determine optimal paths and locations.
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Third, keep all digital interactions confined to the app itself.
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We had ideas to include other social media like Tumblr. Still, reducing cognitive load is a priority when dealing with journeys that can be frustrating when users are stumped.​
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